Chapter 67
Feifei looked at Xie Xingchen with an innocent face, completely unaware of what kind of situation it was in.
Seeing that, Xie Xingchen no longer felt like watching the rain.
He pinched the chubby rabbit—covered in mud and water—by the scruff with utter disgust and carried it to the bathroom for a wash.
First he rinsed the mud off Feifei under the faucet, then lathered it up with pet shampoo. Finally, Xie Xingchen placed the rabbit into a large footbasin, letting Lord Rabbit soak in comfort.
“Feifei, honestly—running around everywhere even when it’s raining!”
Xie Xingchen poked the rabbit’s head, exasperated. “Aren’t small animals supposed to predict when it’ll rain? How come it doesn’t work on you?”
Feifei tilted its head at him and then started squealing “ji-ji” in a flurry.
After squeaking a few times and getting no reaction, it spread open its little meaty paw—revealing a seed in its palm.
[Ding-dong, your companion Feifei has brought you back a magical seed.]
Xie Xingchen took it curiously and examined it closely.
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You obtained “Alfalfa Seed” ×1. This is one of Rabbit Ji’s favorite pasture grasses—of course, it’s also a favorite of many other animals!]
[Ding-dong, you have a new planting task. Please check it as soon as possible!]
[Task Content: Plant 1,000 mu of alfalfa; Task Reward: Calf ×2, Lamb ×2; Time Limit: None]
Xie Xingchen’s eyes slowly widened.
So… was he about to unlock animal husbandry?
Alfalfa—an extremely famous forage crop.
Just how famous?
Even Xie Xingchen, someone who didn’t pay much attention to livestock farming, knew the name. That alone showed how universally known it was.
This was a golden treasure!
Holding the alfalfa seed with great care, Xie Xingchen suddenly felt short of breath. Only then did he realize he’d been too nervous to breathe.
After taking several deep breaths, the way he looked at the seed was basically the same way one would look at an unrivaled beauty.
“Wow, Feifei—I misunderstood you! So you weren’t out playing around—you were out getting seeds for me.”
Xie Xingchen scooped Feifei up and gave it an affectionate kiss.
Then he trotted over and placed Feifei under the dryer, selected [Gentle Mode], and while praising Feifei nonstop, let it enjoy the warm, soft airflow.
Feifei squeaked smugly in response.
It kept flipping over, determined to dry every part evenly.
But when it flipped again, Xie Xingchen suddenly noticed the fur on Feifei’s belly had a faint orange-yellow stain.
Xie Xingchen: ?
Was its belly fur always like that?
He couldn’t remember.
Frowning, after a moment he brought over a basin of water.
He dampened a towel and gently pressed it onto that “special” patch of fur… then rubbed.
Once, twice, three times—the orange-yellow stain actually wiped away.
[Ding-dong, you have a new exploration task. Please check it as soon as possible.]
Xie Xingchen froze, confused.
Hadn’t he just accepted a planting task? Why was there suddenly a new exploration task?
With some hesitation, he opened the system panel.
[New Exploration Task: The world is vast and fascinating, and Earth’s abundant species have long soothed your monotonous soul. After long contemplation, you believe the time has come to pack your bags and begin the exploration activity you so love.]
[Exploration Content: Within your territory (Earth), find 10 different plants; Rewards: Juvenile Growth Potion ×1, Breeding Factory ×1, Animal Husbandry Positive Buff ×1; Remaining Time: 239:59:59]
[This is a special challenge—a showdown between time and money. The player may decide whether to place an additional wager. If you choose to wager: ? If the task is completed perfectly, you will receive ? Food Machine [Status: Already Owned] unlimited purchase permission unlocked as a benefit. ? If the task fails ? the wagered revenue will be deducted.]
[To wager, please pay a deposit of 30 billion revenue.]
[[Pay] [Decline]]
The brand-new, eye-dazzling task was full of terms he’d never seen the system use before. Cautious as he was, Xie Xingchen didn’t immediately choose [Pay] or [Decline].
He carefully opened every system notification and reread the details. After confirming there were no hidden traps, he frowned and thought.
Setting aside the unlimited-time planting task of 1,000 mu of alfalfa, the new exploration task required him to find 10 new plants within 10 days.
Xie Xingchen had done many exploration tasks before. He knew they came with unpredictable variables.
But… the rewards were insanely generous! And there was no penalty for failing—so he definitely had to take it.
The real question was whether he should wager.
30 billion in revenue!
That wasn’t a small number for him either.
If the wager succeeded, the bonus was tempting: it would unlock unlimited purchasing rights for the food machine he already owned. But if he failed… not only would he lose that mouthwatering bonus reward, he’d also lose 30 billion on top of it.
He glanced through his “inventory,” then looked at Feifei, his mental abacus clicking loudly.
“Hey, Xiao Mo—during the task, do the new plants Feifei brings back from traveling count as discoveries I found?” If they counted, this would be easy.
[System: They do not count.]
Xie Xingchen was unhappy and baffled. “Why not?”
The system stayed silent for a long while.
[System: The exploration task requires you to explore and discover 10 new plants. Companion gifts are souvenirs brought back from travel. They do not belong to plants discovered through exploration.]
Xie Xingchen: “…Damn. That was careless.”
So the system really had no loopholes to exploit.
After being subtly reminded that his comprehension was lacking (and that he’d indeed been stupid), what could Xie Xingchen do besides smile?
[To wager, please pay a deposit of 30 billion revenue.]
[[Pay] [Decline]]
Ten minutes later, the reminder popped up right on time.
Xie Xingchen opened the system panel and stared at his revenue for a long time. After thinking it over again and again, he finally pressed [Pay].
[Ding-dong, congratulations! Payment successful. Funds frozen ? 30 billion revenue.]
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You have successfully placed a wager on “New Exploration Task.” As your first time completing a “Task Wager” action, you receive 1,000 EXP as a bonus.]
[Ding-dong, congratulations! Your EXP has reached 4,800. Next level requirement: 4,800/6,000.]
[Player Info Panel]
Name: Xie Xingchen
Race: Human
Territory: Earth
Level: LV4
Companion: Fat Rabbit Ji (Feifei) [+]
EXP: 4800/6000
Plant Affinity: ? +1
Mental Strength Rank: A- (?)
Game Progress: 0.1%
Codex Progress: 0%
Infrastructure Progress: 1.5%
Active Tasks: [New Planting Task +], [New Exploration Task +]
Opening the task list, he found both tasks were expandable.
- [New Planting Task]
Task: Plant 1,000 mu of alfalfa
Progress: 0/1000
Time Limit: ? - [New Exploration Task]
Task: Explore and discover 10 new plants
Progress: 0/10
Time Remaining: 239:45:22
Two tasks—if you had enough manpower, you could do them at the same time.
One was timed; the other had no deadline.
So even with his toes, Xie Xingchen knew what to prioritize.
He used mental power to accelerate the growth of the alfalfa seed.
After obtaining more seeds, he set aside one-third for storage. The remaining two-thirds he handed to Long-Life to plant with the planting robots.
Then he packed his essentials, carried two full crates of energy stones from the power room, and brought Get-Rich, Prosperity, and the other robots to Qiong Island.
Everyone knew tropical regions and rainforests were the richest in biodiversity.
Rainforests were complicated, and he only had ten days, so he wouldn’t go there for now. His best choice was a tropical island like Qiong Island!
Xie Xingchen grinned slyly, feeling like he’d found a loophole.
There was a thing called marine plants!
There were tons of them!
Most humans lumped them together as “seaweed,” but the system was a strict high-intelligence system—surely it wouldn’t refuse to classify them properly, right?
Sensing Xie Xingchen’s suspicious thoughts, the system had nothing to say.
But Xie Xingchen wasn’t that shameless. He had ten whole days!
He wouldn’t resort to tricks unless it came down to the wire. If he could find all the plants on Codex Page 01 in those ten days, that would be ideal.
He could say with certainty—he wouldn’t exploit loopholes lightly.
Unless the system’s task design was unreasonable and impossible by normal means. Then… he’d consider it.
His first stop was Qiong Island.
He chose it mainly because Qiong Island had many fruits. Even just the fruits Xie Xingchen had personally discovered already numbered several, and the robots had found several more.
But besides those, Qiong Island had many famous tropical fruits he hadn’t found yet.
This time, he planned to find them all.
That way he’d expand fruit-tea varieties and complete the task at the same time—perfect.
Moving away from the already-explored area near his tropical plantation, Xie Xingchen traveled to the other end of Qiong Island, a stretch of land that had never been explored.
As the other half of Qiong Island, wild coconut trees were everywhere. But perhaps because the light and moisture were better here, the coconut trees were generally taller, the vegetation denser, and the small animals plumper.
His target was plants, so when he saw a dense green patch from the air, he drove the hovercar straight in without hesitation.
After putting on a protective suit, Xie Xingchen stepped out.
The jungle was thick enough to block the sky.
The towering coconut trees made him immediately activate a protective shield—just in case a coconut smashed a hole into his precious skull.
Before splitting up, he divided the robots into seven groups. Aside from Get-Rich and Prosperity staying with him, the other teams activated recording functions and entered the jungle in different directions.
“Get-Rich, Prosperity—let’s go!” Xie Xingchen waved grandly and charged off happily in a random direction.
Weeds grew everywhere underfoot. As he pushed them aside, system prompts popped up nonstop:
[Weed] [Weed] [Weed] … [Weed] [Rice] [Weed] …
“Wait.” Xie Xingchen stopped, his expression strange.
Did he just hear something insane?
Weed… rice?
He reflexively looked back at the weeds behind him and took a deep breath.
Opening the system notification page, sure enough—
In that pile of weeds was actually a rice plant!
Xie Xingchen: Damn, thank goodness he’d enabled full voice and text alerts, or he would’ve missed this divine treasure.
God knew how desperate he was for a staple food. If he missed this, he would’ve cried himself to death.
He returned to the weed pile, swearing to find that rice plant.
But he had overestimated himself…
Standing there, he couldn’t tell weeds from rice at all.
To him, unfilled rice looked no different from random grass!
In the end, he started poking plants experimentally—getting [Weed], poking another—[Weed]…
He ended up using the system prompts like a detector. After he’d poked almost the entire weed patch, he finally found the rice plant hidden deep inside.
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You found the plant “Rice.” Task “Explore 10 plants” progress +1. Current progress: 1/10.]
[Rice: This is a mischievous, vigorous rice plant! It has a special hiding ability. Growing up in a weed patch, it once thought it was just a weed—until the player discovered it, and it finally learned it was rice.]
Xie Xingchen: The system’s descriptions were so dramatic, it almost made him think these plants had lives and stories.
He skipped the long blurb out of habit, locking his eyes onto the key words:
A vigorous rice plant!
Hahahaha—his white rice was secured!
He carefully placed the unexpectedly acquired rice plant into a plant-preservation container, then continued forward in high spirits.
His goal this trip was longan and papaya.
Longan and papaya—like mangoes and lychees—were tropical fruits.
Their fruits grew on trees and were distinctive; unlike small grass, they wouldn’t be easily overlooked. In Xie Xingchen’s eyes, these were practically free task progress—just spot them and you’re done.
Especially papaya!
Its tree shape was so distinctive, even somewhat similar to a coconut tree.
On Qiong Island, it should be even easier to find than longan—because historically, papayas on Qiong Island were so plentiful people used them to feed pigs.
That didn’t mean papayas were bad. It meant papayas were too common there—so common they couldn’t be sold for much.
And common was good!
Xie Xingchen’s spirits instantly lifted.
Look up, search—look up, search again…
Two hours later, the papaya and longan were still nowhere to be found.
Instead, along the way, he stumbled upon a lychee grove, a mango grove, and even a small patch of jackfruit trees!
But it was useless—he already had those. Finding more didn’t count toward the exploration task.
Xie Xingchen: Rabbit sigh.jpg
But the world’s surprises always show up when you least expect them.
While Xie Xingchen’s side couldn’t find new plants, the robot teams he sent out brought good news.
“Southeast has lots of fruit trees like coconut trees?”
When he received the message, Xie Xingchen got so excited he almost jumped—then quickly confirmed with the leader of Squad 002.
The leader nodded and sent photos to Xie Xingchen’s wrist-brain.
Seeing that familiar papaya tree, Xie Xingchen’s eyes blazed.
Ahhh—papaya! It really is papaya!!!
Xie Xingchen hurriedly said, “Squad 002, don’t touch anything. Stay where you are—I’m coming right now.”
Xie Xingchen couldn’t navigate by direction, but Prosperity was a pro.
Using the coordinates Squad 002 sent, one human and two robots sprinted straight for the target.
Unexpectedly, Squad 002 was very close. It took less than twenty minutes to reach them.
Xie Xingchen: Wait… this place looks kind of familiar?
When he saw that familiar crooked-neck tree, he fell silent.
Damn (a kind of plant)—wasn’t this the place where they’d chosen the opposite direction earlier?
If they’d gone this way back then, they probably would’ve found papaya immediately.
A wave of “we did pointless work” frustration hit him.
He shook his head and threw the untimely frustration out of his mind. Stepping up to Squad 002, he reignited his excitement.
The squad leader stepped forward and introduced the fruit tree. “Boss, this is the plant we found that we suspect might be papaya.”
Not “suspect”—this is papaya!
Xie Xingchen confirmed at a glance, the corners of his mouth lifting uncontrollably.
After patting each member of Squad 002 on the shoulder in thanks, he stepped forward and placed his hand on the papaya tree.
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You found the plant “Papaya Tree.” Task “Explore 10 plants” progress +1. Current progress: 2/10.]
[Papaya: One of Qiong Island’s representative fruits. It’s extremely hardy—on Qiong Island, you can sow it anywhere and it will grow!]
Done. Hahaha…
Achievement unlocked: [Exploration +2] ?
Seeing the owner’s grin brighter than the sun, the robots knew they’d found the right thing.
Being able to help him made them extraordinarily excited.
After happily saying goodbye, Squad 002 set off again on their exploration journey.
Watching the robots leave in such high spirits, Xie Xingchen let out a country-bumpkin-style sigh of wonder: “Get-Rich, Prosperity… why do I feel like our robots all have potential to awaken as mechanical lifeforms?”
Get-Rich and Prosperity froze, then nodded. “Yes, boss.”
He’d been about to praise how lively and fun the robots were, but Get-Rich and Prosperity gave him such a stiff reply that he instantly forgot what he wanted to say next.
Xie Xingchen was annoyed. “I feel like I had something to say, but I forgot what it was.”
Get-Rich replied, “Then it wasn’t important.”
Prosperity agreed. “Yes, boss. If you can’t remember, you can continue the task.”
Having followed Xie Xingchen from the human civilization’s central planet to Earth, these two robots had obviously seen many of his odd behaviors.
He’d never originally planned to hide anything from robots. Now he wanted to hide things—but it was too late. So he’d made up an excuse that sounded ridiculously far-fetched.
And the robots accepted it immediately?
Without a single question!
That made Xie Xingchen question reality.
After overthinking it, he could only conclude: unawakened robots were simply too rigid.
After picking several papayas and tossing them into his storage button, Xie Xingchen felt energized again. With enthusiasm, he pointed south. “Then let’s keep going. Once we find the longan trees, we’ll go to the shore and do some beachcombing, yeah?”
At the words “beachcombing,” he swallowed.
He missed raw-marinated seafood!
What he’d made before was so delicious!
That icy, creamy mouthfeel; the sweet, fresh meat; even the sauce was so good he’d nearly wanted to swallow his tongue.
Get-Rich smiled. “Understood, boss.”
Prosperity nodded. “Roger, boss.”
They answered and even sped up.
From their slightly cheerier backs after hearing “beachcombing,” it was obvious they liked the idea too.
Robots didn’t usually display such clear “fondness.”
But on Earth, their emotions seemed richer than anywhere else.
Just like Xie Xingchen said: they were robots with feelings, and sooner or later they’d awaken into mechanical life—or gain citizen status.
Choosing a direction near the papaya trees that didn’t yet have a team exploring, Xie Xingchen drew lots and decided to head straight south.
Qiong Island lay at what used to be the southernmost edge of the Huaguo mainland. It was a tropical island.
If they kept walking in one direction, sooner or later they’d reach the sea. And if Xie Xingchen kept going south, he would eventually reach the island’s southern tip.
As the temperature noticeably climbed, the air seemed to shimmer with heat.
Even though it was already October, Qiong Island was still scorching. The sun hung high like it wanted to roast people, with none of the coolness of late autumn.
Walking in the forest was cooler, but without a protective suit that regulated temperature automatically, Xie Xingchen would’ve long since wanted to wear short sleeves.
Wiping sweat from his flushed cheeks, he looked at the forest around them growing thinner.
Contrary to the idea of “the farther south, the richer the vegetation,” the farther south they went, the sparser the plants became.
Eventually, there were barely any tall trees at all—only hardy weeds everywhere.
Half an hour later, he could already hear waves slapping against rocks.
The forest was about to transition into beach. Though the ground was still damp soil, an obvious boundary line appeared ahead—
If they went further, they’d reach fine sand.
From a small slope, Xie Xingchen gazed at the sea. After thinking for a moment, he decided to keep going south.
As they neared the ocean, the forest fell behind, and vegetation grew even scarcer.
Down another small slope, he continued forward. But after only a few steps, his gaze was drawn to a low shrub.
This… looked like a Sichuan pepper tree?
He wasn’t sure.
He stopped and stood still. After steadying his breathing, he leaned in and sniffed.
That distinctive, pungent “pepper” scent made him burst into laughter.
Hahahaha—his pickled fish stew was coming!
Sichuan pepper!
He’d found Sichuan pepper!
With the bird’s-eye chili he’d found earlier, most of his recipes were basically unlocked!
He lunged at it like a starving wolf. To him, this pepper tree was a treasure—he practically wanted to call it “darling.”
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You found the plant “Sichuan Pepper Tree.” Task “Explore 10 plants” progress +1. Current progress: 3/10.]
[Sichuan Pepper Tree: This is a magical Sichuan pepper tree. Normally, Qiong Island doesn’t produce Sichuan pepper, yet it was born and raised here—one can’t help but marvel at the wonder of life! Perhaps this is the only Sichuan pepper tree on Qiong Island?]
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